Video Game Reviews - Skyrim: Helgen Reborn

It's been a good time recently for unofficial Skyrim DLC. The modding community for the fifth game in the Elder Scrolls saga has not calmed down a bit since the game came out in late 2011, but only recently has it become truly remarkable. Bethesda Sotworks has announced that there will be no further official DLC for the game, giving modders free reign to finally make the big changes and additions that they have been envisioning since the game was first released, and to finally release the big mods that have been years in the making, knowing that there will be no more DLC in the future that they will have to adapt there work to support. Of course the most impressive of these megamods is the rightfully praised and popular Falskaar, the first unofficial DLC to feature a working, full-scale landmass, questline, and a full cast of brand new voice actors. It is a milestone for the Skyrim modding community. To make the large, open world of Skyrim seem like it truly exists in a larger world, the provinces surrounding Skyrim do exist in-game, if only in a very rough, unfinished state. The existence of Falskaar gives players hope that these lands might one day be made complete. Falskaar is by far the best all-around mod on the web for Skyrim, and I don't think that anyone could argue that, but we aren't here to talk about Falskaar today. Today, we are here to talk about a mod from back in May of this year that I feel has the potential to rival Falskaar and other such mods as a DLC alternative: Helgen Reborn, by Mike Hancho, known to his friends as Balok.

For those who don't know, Skyrim begins with the destruction of a city, the border city of Helgen. While not a capital city within the world of Skyrim, it is an important place due to the fact that it rests on Skyrim's heavily-trafficked southern border. The town is turned to rubble by a dragon named Alduin, the main villain of the primary game, and it just stays that way. You can return, but it will be in ruins. Many players were very upset by this. The only other chance that Elder Scrolls fans ever had to explore Skyrim was in the first game of the series, Arena, which simply wasn't very good, and with many of the cities in that game already removed from the land of Skyrim for this most recent game's release, people were miffed that there would be one less town to explore than they believed. Simply put, Helgen Reborn fixes this by creating an in-depth, fully-voiced questline to dynamically restore Helgen and repopulate it. It begins like many DLC questlines, with a messenger asking you to meet with some yet-unknown figure, and the resulting quest results in a conservative average of about four to six hours of play, depending on the care you take (it was more like ten for me). The characters' voices never felt out of place, except maybe very briefly only once or twice, and the quest, while a bit linear, was interesting and enjoyable. It even pits you against the true enemies of the game: the Thalmor. These High Elves hate anyone who doesn't share exactly their ideals, and while a good relationship with them is arguably in the Septim Empire's best interests, it's clear that these guys are up to something. With no new official DLC coming to explain what that is, this mod is a welcome substitution. The mod also rewards you with a new dynamic player home, new armor, and a new custom-voiced follower who seriously may replace Serana on Team Dovahkiin, at least in my game world.

The questline also includes a functional recreation of the old arena from TES IV: Oblivion, though on a smaller scale. It may be a bit more limited than the ever-popular Oblivion-equivalent, but it is still fun, and Balok himself has said that he hopes to expand upon it later on, which actually gives me an opportunity to talk about something that I love about this mod: the fact that updating it is absolutely hastle-free. I downloaded and began this mod when it was in the first Beta release, and I was able to easily update it without even having to leave Helgen first. The mod is built well enough that updating at practically any stage isn't much of an issue, and the mod author is always checking the comments section of the mod page for issues and concerns and helping to correct them, so if there ever is a problem with the mod, don't expect to have to worry about it for long. There is just so much to like about this mod, which only really focusses on this one city, but as with everything, there are problems as well, which may prevent the mod from becoming your cup of tea.

First of all, I mentioned above that the questline is a bit linear. Sometimes there just aren't ways to go about the tasks in this mod except the way you are told, which can be very annoying in an open game like Skyrim. Also, while the story is long and involved and interesting, some of the length comes from a series of radiant quests that force you to run six times, each time with a different new character, to six places across Skyrim to clear out a random camp or cave. Though these quests may take you to places in the game that you haven't been, they can be quite tedious and boring. There is also a pretty serious issue that the radiant quests have a habit of breaking, forcing you to result in the use of console commands to get you past them, which is very immersion-breaking. The only true choice for the player to make is who to ally the city with, the Empire or the Stormcloaks, or a private faction, and while this is appreciated, it may not be enough for everyone.

Overall, Helgen Reborn is far from a perfect mod, but it is one that everyone should check out. While it can be linear and tedious at times, everything in it feels in-place and plausible within the world of the game, and it's clear that some substantial consideration and talent went into the mod's production, and that it continues to show great potential. Also, the official DLC, Dawnguard, was almost as tedious and linear as this mod can be, and I still think it averaged out to be a pretty good buy, and Helgen Reborn is free! Balok, you get a cookie for your hard work, and for having a Star Trek nickname. Helgen reborn gets a high 8 out of 10. I look forward to any future updates, and to anything else that you may do in the future.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a review of the other giant mod mentioned in the review: Falskaar. I don't know when it'll come out, though. Falskaar is pretty big and I have no idea how long it will take to complete ;)

**Edit: Balok himself actually read this review, and aside from blowing my mind with that fact, he let me know that he has plans to expand the radiant quests in this mod and improve them, making them more unique and enthralling. This includes expanding dungeons and even creating a custom version of the Nord race. Once this is done I will play through the questline again and report on the differences.**